Hiking is one of life's great joys, provided you don't have two young kids and a bad back - in which case, you're stuck living vicariously through people who actually do it. That's the predicament that led this reviewer to Robert Moor's "On Trails: An Exploration," expecting a simple travelogue about the Appalachian Trail. Instead, the book gleefully veers off into ant trails, fiber optic wires, sheep herding, and the proto-internet envisioned by engineer Vannevar Bush in 1945.
Moor's writing chops are evident from the prologue, where a storm pins him down on a ridge and he muses that "stripped of its Romantic finery, the wild ceased to inspire; only a gauzy scrim separated sublimity and horror." From there, chapter two dives into the fine distinctions of English words for lines of movement, because why not? The book bounces between game trails, colonialism's damage, and a comic anecdote about misplacing an entire flock of sheep, all without feeling disjointed - a testament to Moor's skill.
Starting with a simple question - how did the Appalachian Trail form? - "On Trails" branches into a thousand tributaries, exploring how the concept of trails helps us understand the world. It's available on most ebook stores, but the review strongly recommends buying a physical copy at your local independent bookshop or supporting your local library.